Fast-food restaurants normally serve food from a counter and consumers must carry the food to the place where it is consumed. Food purchased in fast-food restaurants is frequently consumed in a vehicle which may be traveling across the highway while the food is being eaten. Many fast-food restaurants provide trays for their customers to carry food to a table within the restaurant or to a vehicle in which it is to be consumed. The trays normally are light weight and disposable and the food is also served in light weight and disposable containers such as paper or plastic drinking containers and paper or plastic plates or dishes. As a result, the food containers tend to slip on the surface of the carrying tray and beverage containers tend to tip over. Persons who purchase and carry food served in fast-food restaurants are not skilled food servers and persons who eat fast food having serving trays precariously perched on their laps are frequently children.
Disposable trays for carrying and eating fast food must be inexpensive to make and easy to store and use. Flat trays are both inexpensive to make and easy to store and use but flat trays are undesirable for the reasons mentioned above. Deep trays that are capable of containing food and holding the contents of tipped-over drink containers are difficult to store and use because they consume so much vertical space. A stack of six, 4-inch deep trays would consume 2 feet vertically on a shelf. Trays made to be nested are frequently used to avoid the problem of consuming vertical storage space however nested trays tend to jam together making it difficult to separate them one from another as they are being used. The time consumed in separating a single top tray from a stack of jammed trays is not acceptable in a busy fast-food restaurant.
Deep trays also suffer from having food and drink items not easily accessible. To avoid inaccessibility 2-piece trays have been made having a deep lower part and a flat upper part. Such trays must be assembled before use, but the assembly of upper and lower pieces cannot consume too much time. Additionally, the assembled unit should not easily come apart in use or the benefits obtained from the food holding upper tray part are lost.
It has also been known to make trays for fast food of folded cardboard so that the trays may be made and stored flat and folded to make three-dimensionable shapes at the site where they are to be used. Trays made of flat cardboard elements that are folded to produce depth almost invariably have cuts and slits through which liquid that is spilled on such a tray can leak, whether the tray is deep or shallow. Additionally, liquid spilled on trays made of such materials as folded corrugated cardboard will quickly soak through the tray and soil the car upholstery or the clothing of the user who is, for example, holding the tray on his or her lap while the food is being consumed.